HAWKESBURY cricketer Naomi Stalenberg will start her third season with the NSW Breakers on Saturday, but the 21-year-old insists she is still has to make a name for herself.
The Women’s National Cricket League, the female Australian one-day competition, starts this weekend, and the Breakers have a double header in Perth at the WACA.
The Breakers will play Western Australia on Friday, October 9, and follow it up with a match against South Australia the next day.
While Stalenberg is part of the Breakers squad, she is no guarantee to take the field this weekend, though said she plans to make the most of any chance she has.
‘‘I don’t know whether I’ll be in the team for the first round so I just need to take any opportunity I get with the ball and the bat,’’ she said.
‘‘I have a lot of confidence in our team. We’ve had a lot of movement with players, but I think we still have a winning team.
‘‘Our experienced players should hopefully bring us home and be assisted by the young girls.’’
While she will simply have to wait and see if she gets picked, later in the year, she is a certainty to see lots of game time with the Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League.
The all-rounder is tipped to be one of the first picked for each game, with the first to be played at Stalenberg’s adopted home ground of Penrith.
Despite growing up in Windsor, Stalenberg was forced to move to Campbelltown, and then Penrith to further develop as a cricketer.
The first Sydney Thunder match will be played at Howell Oval in Penrith on December 6, a date which Stalenberg said she was eagerly awaiting.
‘‘I am going to try to get a big crowd at Penrith for myself,’’ she said.
‘‘I think it is really good to get some cricket out in the west. I think we’ll get a lot of people there and it will be a good way to start the competition.’’
Stalenberg said the new women’s T20 competition, which was modelled off the highly successful men’s Big Bash League, was just what women’s cricket needed.
‘‘I think it is a huge step for women’s cricket, it will be really good for a lot of girls to get a lot more coverage,’’ she said.
‘‘The men’s Big Bash has done well so I think us changing to that is a good step for women’s cricket. We’ll get a lot more publicity and it will be good for our girls.’’
However, before December, Stalenberg has the one-day competition to focus on.
She said she expected a tough start to the season, because the girls had seen limited trial action.
‘‘It has just been about the training really. Basically we haven’t had a lot of game time which has been challenging. You really want some game style situations to prepare,’’ she said.
‘‘It has been tough with the Aussie girls [The Southern Stars players] all coming back.’’
Stalenberg was picked in the final 11 for the Breakers' first game against WA.
WA opener and captain Nicole Bolton made a century, and was dismissed for 102 after she was caught by Stalenberg off the bowling of Lauren Smith.
Stalenberg took a second catch to dismiss Bhavi Devchand.
